Clockworks
by TwinMoons
Summary: *NEW CHAPTER UP* Following the 'bad ending', Riou slowly eases into his new role, but peace isn't an easy thing to keep. Assassins and the shadows of another terrible war loomed ahead for all...
1. Home Sweet Home

Disclaimer : I do not own Suikoden characters, worlds, or anything pertaining to Suikoden. All I do own that pertains to this is this story itself and whatever original characters that may crop up.

**Chapter One**

**Home Sweet Home**

He didn't really know if it was light or dark, day or night. That sort of awareness just seemed to be washed out, turning all the colors of this world ashen-grey. The trees, the leaves, the muted sound of running water, the rock they had marked with their weapons...everything was so colorless, so bled out. A blur of flickering shades. He could barely register the words...the precious last words...that were being spoken to him, as he watched the Beginning begin again. The sword and the shield merged, forming patterns and colors...yes, there were colors in them...that he didn't even recognize, bonding with power greater than he knew existed. All this he saw and felt, yet he did feel nothing. Nothing but emptiness. Helplessly empty pain. He watched as the Rune's power grew, escalating to impossible heights as what was broken long ago was again joined as one, and found himself breaking. The last words, the precious yet empty words, that he would remember to the end of his days; a wane little smile that he knew to be the last; bright eyes that seemed to---no, they didn't seem to, they really did---lose their light with every second. They seemed to tell him, to assure him, that it wasn't his fault. All this had to happen anyway, he could do nothing more to stop it than stop the sun from setting. It was part of a gearworks universe, a tragedy integral to the whole melodrama. The only mistake he made was loving his sister and friend too deeply, clinging to them too strongly, that when the time came for them to slip away the pain was unbearable. Jowy and Nanami were most of the reasons he was in the war. He had hoped to the last minute that at one point they'll be together again, and when it was all over, the world threw all his hopes back at him. And he was sick of it. He was sick of it all.

The eyes---they were beginning to cloud---reassured him again and again, but he could find no solace. It was all his fault anyway, even if it was not. It was his fault the moment he decided to take that fork in the road, a lifetime ago. He was watching a friend, one that means more than a nation, die. And he was powerless to do anything. It was like that when his sister, who meant more than the world, died for him. He was losing another piece of himself, and all he could do was watch as that life slipped away.

The broken pieces could never be put together again. Nor will the gashes they left in him ever heal.

The grave for the King of Highland would be a small one, near their meeting place. He dug it himself, deep enough to ensure that wolves and other hungry animals wouldn't be able to defile it, and inconspicuous enough to hide it from casual eyes. Highland was bitter, and he wasn't sure what would happen to the grave of the boy who, in most people's eyes, led the country to defeat. It was Jowy's intention, for him to be the evil king and Riou the valiant hero, though that didn't make him feel any better about it. 

Riou stood up; blinking away the tears that he promised will never come. He will definitely hold on dearly to this peace. It cost him too much for it to be otherwise. Then he said his farewells.

Another destiny was awaiting him.

-------------------------------

_Kyaro. The place of so many memories, _Riou thought as he stepped into the rural little village. It was quiet and peaceful, like always, except that now it was tinged with despair and resignation of someone unsure of his fate. Like himself, then and now. Had he really grown up here, and had this place really expelled him out, branding him for life as a traitor?

No matter. He was there for an unfinished business, and the hero was eager to get it over with as soon as possible. There's no point in lingering in places that give you only regrets. Besides, judging from the looks some of the neighbours were giving him, it wasn't likely that he could come back any time soon.

Riou needed to say goodbye. Not only to his home, but to his memories, to his favourite places, to a part of himself that he would leave behind forever. He needed those goodbyes...to confirm that he had nothing left here, to make sure that there'd be no past to drag on the future. He had to make sure that the naïve boy from Kyaro had no place inside Riou the hero anymore, otherwise he wouldn't be able to handle the days ahead of him. It would be painful, but it must be done. He knew it, but he had to come here for his heart to really accept it.

Walking at a brisk pace, Riou followed the familiar streets toward the only place he'd called home, passing the empty monument that was the Atreides family estate. That house and its fineries had overawed him when he was a boy, but now it seemed so...vacant. Some kind of sadness/emptiness loomed over it and, as he thought back to the day when Jowy's father expelled him from the house, it was unlikely to be lifted. The family suffered a 'traitorous' son, disowned him, witnessed his rising to the throne and saw him brought down the country. The thought of it saddened him, to know that all the old misunderstandings between Jowy and his family was never reconciled. Adding to that is the new 'misunderstanding' that probably shamed the entire household.

_They deserve the truth, someday, but now is too risky,_ Riou conceded as the he ascended the small hill leading to his Grandpa's home. _I'll send something---something to explain everything, someday. If I tell them now, I might as well throw the peace out a cliff and let all we've done go up in a smoke._

Then he was over the hill, looking at the old house with mixed feelings. "Home sweet home," Riou whispered as he approached the entrance. It hadn't changed much: a bit more run-down than the last time he saw it, and there were some ugly holes in the ceiling. But otherwise, Genkaku's house was just as he remembered it. There was that place he and Nanami used to train, and there's that place where Grandpa would sit, an amused smile perpetually on his face. The sight of this place brought a lot of memories to Riou; so many that he didn't know what to do with. Some of them he didn't even know were there; it was buried too deep in his consciousness. But here he felt he could remember everything, the sound of laughter, the smell of wet grass after a rain---

Riou stood basking in the memories for a while before walking to the door and entered the house. Inside, it was dusty, but everything remained in the same place he'd left it. Nanami's pottery experiments, his old room with all the left behind personal effects, dried supplies of food in the kitchen---which brought a wry smile to his lips as he remembered his sister's veritable cooking skills---remained untouched. It certainly seemed that either the burglars leave the house alone, or there's nothing to steal, or simply because being burglars in Kyaro wasn't all that profitable.

He went through the kitchen and out the back, visiting the grave of his grandfather. Riou knelt and uttered the familiar prayers, wishing that his words would somehow reach the body that was Genkaku's.

_When was the last time I came to see you, Grandpa?_ He mouthed silently. _I've been through so much...there're so many things I'd never even thought of in my wildest dreams. Or my worst nightmares. I've...changed, and I don't know if it's for the better. I've lost Jowy and Nanami. I couldn't do anything. I know what I should do, but I don't know if I'm ready. I don't know if I can. At least I still had you before when Nanami left on one of her temper spells, or when Jowy went with his father on trips...but now I'm alone._

_I wish you were here..._

Riou considered indulging himself a bit more, but quickly decided that it was enough for one day. Any more and he'd find himself wallowing in self-pity, and he didn't want that. He would need every bit of his sanity intact in the days to come.

_Goodbye, grandpa._

The next stop was the Unicorn Brigade building. He didn't spend too much time there, since the place made him uneasy. Wonderful times were here, as well as painful times. It was over quickly and then Riou went to the place he reserved for last: The old tree, where all his childhood dreams and magic castles lie. 

Standing under that tree, Riou could feel the wind playfully messing his hair, its soft, familiar touch brushing his skin lightly. Up in the distant mountains where it originated, that wind was harsh and bitter. Here, on a faraway hill, it was merely a pleasant breeze, pulling him toward the plains spreading out before him, promising grand adventures, worlds he'd never seen.

Which was, desperately, what he needed to say goodbye to the most. Even after the war, quite an adventure enough for any sane person, Riou still felt that tug. That pull, that promise, that the wind told him years ago, and it never left him. Some part of him still longed for the vast world, the great wide somewhere, and he couldn't do what he must do until he laid that yearning to rest.

"I'm sorry," Riou said to no one in particular, except maybe those distant mountains, as he stood there tracing the familiar contours of the wood absently. "It's all over."

It's over. That's it. How one get one's self to believe in that is another matter. The wind tousled his hair again, and Riou felt like he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, to just throw away those memories, such as they were. He had come here to leave everything, yet he found that the yearning wouldn't let go. Once he'd set his eyes on his old dreams, that nostalgic longing adamantly refused to let him go. He still couldn't shake away the need to see the world beyond. It was hard to let go of the single remaining dream that they all shared together. That was the unspoken promise between him, Jowy and Nanami. To see the world for them, laughing together, crying together, sharing in all their triumphs and pitfalls---

_I want to be free._

And the war then flashed through his mind. The bloodied fields of the dead and the dying, the shouts, the screams. The people giving him their confident smiles, placing the weight of their dreams on his shoulders—

_No._

Torn, Riou ran his hand along the old hiding places in the wood where he'd tucked away all his 'secret' possessions, in his and Jowy's secret fortress. He'd come here earlier in his adventure to pick up things and left nothing behind, so he was surprised when his hand found something there.

A Rune. The mark said it was the 'Hunter's Rune', though he had no idea what it does as of yet.

And another thing – a small picture, meticulously hand painted by what must be Highland's finest artist. Of three familiar persons, two boys and a girl, laughing under the very tree it was hidden in. Riou felt his eyes beginning to blur, despite his self-promise about the tears.

_Jowy, you sly snob! You'd known it all along…all along…_

Managing to tear his gaze away from the picture for a moment, Riou glanced at the world and its allure. Somehow, that reminder of happy times struck a cord somewhere in him, and he finally realized he could never go back. There was nowhere left to go to.

That made it easier.

"Goodbye to you, too," Riou whispered, hoping the wind would carry it to that somewhere that had waited for him for so long. The only dream he could share from now on would be peace, and Riou fervently wished that it would last.

He was going back to the castle, to another life.


	2. Jowston Plains

****

Chapter 2: Jowston Plains

The sun was bright, the sky was burning blue and the breeze was pleasantly cool as it playfully threatened to blow Templton's hat off. The ground was soft against the boy's feet while he walked down the twisted, winding road with a jaunty gait, savoring the taste of travelling he'd sorely missed in all these months. The horizon loomed in front of him, beckoning with its mysteries of faraway lands, strange and ever stranger places, daring anyone to try to discover everything. Only after being cooped up in the castle except in times of emergencies when he was called to the front lines did Templton realized how much being on the road meant to him. To feel the sun beating on his back! He'd realized that, as someone once said, home was everything, and the whole world was his home. It was so good to be back, though if he was to say that he didn't miss the musty library and the few friends he'd made he would have been lying.

Admittedly, though, it was getting a little too bright for his tastes, and Templton frowned a bit as he shaded his eyes from the sun. No matter how good the journey had been, there were times when it might be more pleasant to just sit under a nice shade for a while and not to mention that he could hear his stomach protesting quite loudly. Chuckling, Templton decided to humor his guts and the cartographer began to wander around looking for some kind of shade. That was when he heard somebody yelling his name.

Frowning yet again, Templton squinted to see who it was, and got a surprise when the figure running up the road was no other than Lord Riou.

----------------------

Simply put, the trip back from Kyaro was miserable.

Not only was he required to walk every possible path down the not-so-pleasant memory lane, but the weather in the Misty Mountains were even worse than he remembered. He must have spent days wandering there, lost in the fog banks. When he got down to the plains the going got easier, but without the presence of war, monster activities seemed to be increasing and he often had to show them it wasn't a wise idea. Hence, the past weeks was one of those times Riou wished he had let common sense win over his rare bouts of stubbornness and bring the Blinking Mirror with him. Instead of spending a week and a half to reach Toto, he could've been back at Headquarters in a few seconds. It was, he supposed, as rotten an example of hindsight as he was likely to find.

And the surprises just kept on coming. Riou never expected to see Templton just around the bend in the road. As far as he knew, the young cartographer was still at the castle, cataloguing piles of old maps and parchments for 'future reference'. Besides, Riou remembered that he didn't seem very happy with the sight of Toto's smoking ruins and thought it unlikely that he'd be back in the area. So as to satisfy his curiousity, Riou called him with a smile and a wave. Templton answered him with a frown and a jolt.

"L--Lord Riou? What are you doing here? Where did you go? The entire civilian staff went crazy trying to find you!" the younger boy stammered. 

__

He must be really surprised, Riou thought,_ I've never seen him so much as mispronounce a word before. _"I went home to Kyaro to tie up some loose ends, that's all, and I'm getting back just now. What about you? I'd never thought to see you around here," he asked conversationally, settling down under the shade with no small amount of relief.

Looking a bit curious but apparently not wishing to press the issue, Templton replied "Well, the war is over so I thought I should go back to the road. I miss traveling, and I have something I'd really like to do."

__

Of course. Really, Riou, that was a stupid question. "I should've known, didn't think it's going to be this early though. So where are you going?"

"For the time being, Toran castle. I want to get some news of Kanakan, it's been sometime since I'd heard anything from there," a fond smile lit up the cartographer's face as he relived what must be treasured memories. Riou felt a slight pang as he watched the shifting display of emotions across his face.  
  
"And after that?" he asked, trying to keep his growing pains out of it as much as possible. Letting go didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

Templton's smile grew even wider. "I'll be following my heart, my Lord, wherever it and the wind will take me," a dreamy glint appeared in his eyes, which grew suddenly alive. "Someday I hope it'll take me to the edge of the world. It's every cartographer's finest dream."

Having some trouble clamping down the pangs, Riou went quiet for a moment, then finally said, "I know how you feel." Somehow it seemed the most appropriate, and somehow Templton really seemed to understand as he nodded slowly.

Their stomachs chose that moment to mutually protest. Both boys turned to look at each other with surprise, which turned into embarrassment, which soon became all-out laughter. 

"Templton," Riou said, still wheezing for air, "I don't suppose you have anything to eat? The Hero of the City-States apparently didn't have enough common sense to pack enough food, I'm afraid."

"All sane travelers come prepared unless they can cook," the boy laughed again and reached into his backpack, producing two packets of dry rations. "It's no Hai Yo, my Lord, but still definitely better than what I make. Dig in." Handing one packet to Riou, he peeled his open and began to consume the gray-looking stuff with absolute indifference. Riou tried it, and found it to be (not surprisingly) tasteless, which were still miles above what he called food during most of his existence. _Wasn't half-bad_, he decided.

"So has everybody left yet? I'm sure quite a few of you guys have businesses to keep out there," Riou asked, still munching on another glob of the stuff.

"Hardly. Hannah left to the Grasslands, I think. She didn't say a word to anyone so all we have to go by are reports of this strange woman going that way. A day later and all the squirrels are gone, and after them most of the monsters. They say they have no business there as the war's over. After that I left, so I didn't know if anybody else were going to or not, but I would imagine they had stayed and waited for you before they go," Templton left off, giving the other boy an uneasy glance. "Uh, my Lord,---"

Riou waved him off. "I don't mind. I didn't exactly wait for farewells either. So you're saying everyone really waited for me?" Something in his heart leaped and some other thing twisted. The young hero had no more idea about how he could feel guilty and jubilant at the same time than he had about why a certain face chose to pop into his mind at that particular moment. It unnerved him yet gave a strange feeling of peace.

"I think so, my Lord." Templton replied, looking a bit guilty himself.

The conversation drifted from topic to topic after that, covering anything from the antics of the strategist's retinue to the average selling price of Celadon Urns. Then, after they finished their lunch the two boys shook hands, gave a few slaps on the back, and continued on their ways.

---------------------------

Headquarters came into sight a few hours before noon on the day after.

Riou stood on a relatively low hill near Kuskus, watching the castle's reflection shimmered in the water far away, one hand fingering the changed shape of his right-handed rune absently. The Presence of the Beginning Rune was much different than the Bright's Shield's; less gentle, more...overbearing…powerful. He still couldn't get use to it, much less to the idea that it would lend him its powers. It also seemed to have a sort of...murmur that the Bright Shield Rune never had.

The image of the castle shifted as the water ebbed, and the boy quickly shook himself out of his thoughts and reminded himself of the tight schedule he was on. Besides, seeing the castle recalled that particular face back again, and one thing he didn't want was arriving only to find that its owner has left as well. Which was odd. 

__

Easy, Riou. What is it with you and daydreaming these days? You are way, WAY past that now, buddy. Better get used to it.

He bent downward to pick up his knapsack, which he had laid on the ground a few moments earlier to relieve his protesting back, his mind darting to and fro between that face and the Chief of State chair. In that preoccupation, Riou almost didn't notice the tall grass rustling behind his back. Almost.

Whirling around with blurring speed, the young hero whipped out his trusty tonfas and blocked the incoming daggers in one fluid movement. As the blades fell to the grass, he leaped over the camouflaging leaves and brought the tonfas down in a cross-dive on his assailant. Riou felt something sharp scratching his skin, but paid it no attention as he connected his hits with the target. The man was knocked back a few feet before collapsing to the ground.

"That was a bad idea, whatever it was." Riou said in casual tones as he inspected him, carefully looking around for other concealed daggers. "My instincts tend to get the better of me. Are you all right? Can you get up?"

The man stared at him wildly, his expression somewhere between indignity and shock. "You---Riou---"

Riou's smile was rueful. He noticed some blood trickling off his forearms, and proceeded to wipe it off. "I haven't been called on a first name basis for sometime. You're a bandit, sir? I didn't even know there's any around these parts."

"Bandits," the man's eyes grew wide, and then he spat. _"Bandits!"_

"Careful," the boy cautioned while the voice inside his head screamed about the sheer insanity of the act. He wasn't in the mood to do anything destructive, no. "You'll get a seizure. How about I let you go and you swear you'll turn yourself in at first notice?" _When pigs can fly. Yes, voice, I know. I just can't do it._

His eyes grew even wider and the look on his face changed from shock to utter realization, to horror and then to hatred in only a few seconds. Then, as Riou was blinking at the man's rapid change of emotions, his eyes glazed over.

"Hey!" he yelled, immediately going over to check the man's pulse and, sure enough, he was dead.

__

I didn't hit him that hard! That was the first thought that went through his mind, a jumble of facts and confusion. Then realization hit him. _Poison. The man took poison. He killed himself, not something an ordinary bandit would do. Why?_

Another realization shook him with a pang of horror. _He was not a bandit. He was...and right here in the middle of Jowston territory, with me not even a ruler yet._

'...The defeated soldiers too will feel comforted by the fact that they were defeated by a Hero and deceived by an evil king...' Jowy's words floated through his mind. Riou didn't want to prove his friend's sacrifice wrong, but it was all he could think of. And what could he do about it?

__

I can't handle this, can I?  
  
Shu. I have to go back now, he has to know this. He'll know what to do.

That particular face crept away into his head again as he recalled how worried she used to look when he went on missions without her, but in his haste Riou quickly swept it away. He had enough to busy his mind as things were, and it was a long walk to the castle.

------

AUTHOR'S NOTE : And here is Riou having to seek advice from Shu yet again. Familiar scenario. ^_^ Sorry for not updating! I had to translate a 80 pages document for my dad, and I was seriously winded afterwards. Got a ten-pager as a first version, but it sucks, so I rewrote the thing. Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this! See you!


	3. Into a Dream...

****

Chapter Three : Into a Dream...

The sun was setting on the faraway horizon.

Eilie stood on the western parapets of North Window Castle, her waistcloth drifting in the evening breeze. She knew that it was calling her again, the sunset, as it did every gypsy sine the dawn of time. Her birthplace, the Grasslands, was so far away that she couldn't see, further behind the receding skyline. Yet another home, one that was more precious than the place she barely remembered, lay stretched in front of her. The winding roads, the twisting rivers, the majestic peaks and serene lakes…it was home. She wanted to see more of it, to be part of it.

Not cooped up in this small, small castle.

Though Eilie _did_ feel a bit guilty for thinking of the castle that way, she couldn't help it. Wanderlust was in the blood of every gypsy born and she was feeling its tug, which grew stronger and stronger with every sunset she saw. The world called to her blood, and she could only hold it off for so long. For a gypsy, any paradise soon turn into a prison.

Even if it held her heart, for the world held her soul.

The warm evening wind stroked her raven hair gently as Eilie bent down, her eyes focusing on the courtyard and the antics of everyday happenings. The archer Kinnison and his wolf-dog Shiro, sitting quietly under a tree yet with every senses alert. Her family Rina and Bolgan, chatting softly down below. Bolgan was making a face while Rina laughed, so she guessed that her sister had made a joke at his expense yet again, a harmless family ritual she haven't seen since arriving in this war-torn land. It happened quite often during their trek from the north, Eilie recalled. The two Kobolds, Gengen and Gabocha, practicing their swordplay on imaginary targets under the last lights of the day...their joys were so simplistic she envied them. For they require no more than living to be happy, and for her it was more complicated. She needed so many things...people needed so many things to be happy...the world, a hand, understanding, friendship, a place to call home...

Eilie tore her gaze away from the practicing Kobolds to another Star of Destiny that came into her view: Chaco the Winger. The mischievous little pickpocket was talking to the gate guards, looking around nervously, and Eilie shook her head with amusement. _A prank again for Chaco,_ she thought as a smile touched her lips. Her mind went back to the mission in which they found him---a simple diplomatic negotiation with Two River for an alliance, and she had went along as there was no 'safety risks' of the later missions, as Riou had put it. It had gone somewhat awry, of course, but everything ended on a faerie tale note, with the population of Two River living in harmony and an alliance forged. All because of Riou and his understanding for the young thief...

Riou. That was 'Lord Riou' now, wasn't it?

Although her eyes were still on the courtyard, Eilie's thoughts went elsewhere. Riou, the mild-mannered, polite boy she'd met in Ryube, seemingly a lifetime ago. He'd changed a lot since then, as did everyone else. The war changed all of them, turned innocence into world-weariness, honesty into schemes. Eilie remembered when they first met---in a knife throwing act, in which he was the target. He didn't flinch even once, not even her daggers flew dangerously close, and she had admired his trust and nerves. That admiration had only grew as the war raged on and more sides of him were shown, until it had changed into something more. Eilie knew how her heart felt as if it was bursting when he went on those missions that he'd refused to let her to go along, and how light she felt when he came back safe and sound though usually a bit worse for wear. With that smile he gave to everybody.

Riou. The ordinary boy who wished for nothing more than a peaceful life with his sister and his best friend. Riou, the terribly stressed leader of the Allied Army of Jowston, the bearer of the Bright Shield Rune who bore the burden of a million lives on his small shoulders. Riou, who had lost the few people people that ever mattered.

The few that ever mattered.

Eilie could feel a tear flowing slowly down her face, falling silently to the courtyard below, unnoticed. Just as unnoticed as she. When she'd wanted to much to stay with him, to offer him a hand when he falls, to lend her shoulder to his burden, he never seemed to see. For Riou, she was only a friend, only a comrade. An unreplaceable, unexpendable someone he could depend on, someone he could trust with his life...never someone he'd share it with, never someone he'd value enough to be worth leaving everything behind. Never someone to say goodbye to when he left.

The world mattered to him, but the world didn't matter. Only three people did, and she wasn't one of them. Nothing more than one of the hundreds of stars in the sky.

Indeed, the first stars of that night had already shivered into being, and none of them showed sympathy to the girl's trembling, sobbing form as she cowered behind the parapets. It was the truth she felt, and it was *painful*.

Fool. She would live through pain. Through the fact that she didn't matter. She knew it made no sense, for her to feel like this. About Riou. About Nanami. About Jowy. About Genkaku. About herself. She knew it was ugly, that she was an ugly person for even thinking about them like that. A wicked, selfish person. Not worth enough to matter. She understood, how could she not understood? She herself had two people that mattered. She was truly sad when Dr. Huan told them it was too late for Nanami. She was shocked when Jowy turned to the other side. Yet it made no sense.

"Fool," Eilie whispered, her lips trembling. "Fool."

The prison might held her heart, but her heart was no longer in one piece. The world held her soul. The world...the harsh, brutal world yet kinder than the stone prison of friends and cameraderie. 

She would not wait. Not for a moment longer.

A few moments later, after the uncontrollable sobbings have subsided into silence, Eilie stood up and made her way to the stairs down, at guard tower. The stone still felt warm against her feet while the night wind was cool, offering a calming contrast of heat and cold. The tower itself appeared deserted, Eilie noted and thought it strange. Someone or another---usually Futch, Sid or Chaco---would still be up and looking at the starlit sky at this time in the evening. She hadn't heard the dinner gong from the mess hall (or as some people like to call it, Hai Yo's restaurant) yet, and there was no sign of a sudden staff meeting.

Her interest piqued, Eilie slowly crept down the stairs, making as little notice as she could. She couldn't even hear anything from the courtyard, which was doubly strange as it was usually bustling with people until deep in the night. But it was so quiet...unnervingly quiet. When at last she'd reached the wooden door and unlatched it, Eilie pushed it slightly open and peeked outside.

The sight that greeted her chilled her blood. People...everyone…lay on the ground, unmoving, as if dead or in a deep sleep. Unable to think of anything else, Eilie kicked the door open and with a cry, rushed out and frantically scanned for her Bolgan and Rina. When at last she found them sprawling in the same location she'd seen from the parapets, she immediately ran to their side.

"Bolgan! Rina!" she cried, touching their faces for any signs of life. Eilie could feel her fingers shaking as she checked for a pulse, for a breath, for anything to indicate that they were alive. Their skin still felt warm, how could they be dead? And it was only moments since she entered the guard tower from the parapets...they couldn't have died! Nothing, nothing, nothing could've killed everyone in such a short time! Yet they were not breathing...

"Breath, Rina, breath, I beg of you," Eilie whispered, her voice choking with fear and genuine terror. "Don't die on me, sister…Bolgan! Don't you leave me alone…" Death? Is this…

"No…" she took a step back. "Don't die…don't…leave me alone…"

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"Mistress Leknaat," Luc bowed as he stepped into the small, cluttered room lined with bookshelves. Jars and other odd apparati filled the breadth and width of the single table inside, apart from a small globe marked in several places by pins. The blind sorceress herself sat on a chair among the books, her fingers tracing the lines in one volume as if she was reading it. Upon hearing his words, she smiled and closed the tome.

"Ah, my apprentice," Leknaat began, her voice almost silvery. Luc knew by instinct that she was building up to something, and that something wasn't very fortunate. "I am glad that you are able to come, though I worry that I might disturb your rest hours."

Rest hours? Mistress knew he could go on for a few weeks without sleep. She was definitely hiding something. Or perhaps not quite hiding...merely probing his reactions. "It is nothing, Mistress. An apprentice would do well to heed the words of his teacher, would he not?"

A light, mysterious smile touched Leknaat's lips, and Luc decided that he didn't like the connotation. Abruptly the smile faded, and the sorceress spoke "Very well, Luc. There is something you must see. Come this way." 

Leknaat put the book back on its shelf and began to probe one of the few places that was a blank wall. The expression on her face showed that she was concentrating hard and, finally, a smile broke through as it seemed she had found what she'd sought. Twisting her fingers in a pattern too fast and too complicated for his eyes to catch, Leknaat had opened a small niche cleverly disguised in the wall. Cliché', but well hidden. She reached into it and produced a small pouch. "This is the object."

"What is it, Mistress?" he asked, well aware that things are not necessarily what they seem in his profession.

There was a pause, and that mysterious smile again. "A dream..."

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Sobbing, Eilie felt all the more ugly about herself, how could she be so uncaring, so insensitive? How could she have felt the loss? How could she understand? She'd understood, yes, but she never did, in a way. How, in times like this, all she could think of was herself? Rina and Bolgan...why did they stop breathing?

"Rina..." she whispered, her voice cracking. Then she heard a sound from behind, at first a mere rustle, like that of wind on the leaves, then a murmur, then a word and a voice. Eilie jumped up in alarm, her daggers whipped up and readied for combat.

"BE AT PEACE, GIRL. I WOULD NOT HARM YOU." The voice said in a low snarl.

"You...you killed everyone, didn't you!? Why would I believe you!?" Eilie yelled. She was literally shaking from head to toe, her fear palpable enough to become substance.

A pause. "THEY ARE NOT DEAD."

"Lie! They aren't breathing! Their hearts do not beat! Do not tell me such incredulous things, murderer!" she shouted, one of her daggers instantly loose and flying in the direction of the voice. It plunged into the ground, hurting no one but the unfortunate blades of grass that grew there. _A disembodied voice...what is it, a demon? I have encountered Runes made flesh and creatures of the wild imagine, but…a voice? How can one hurt a voice? How can one fight a voice? How can one take revenge on a voice?_

"THEY ARE ALIVE, GIRL. I MERELY WISH TO KNOW. THE ONE WAS HERE. WHERE BE THE TWINS?"

"The one? The twins? Start making sense! I don't know what you're talking about!" Eilie cried, feeling more desperate. The wind began to pick up, whipping her waistcloth and blowing dust everywhere. It was like a storm, and she was in the middle of it.

"IF YOU TRULY DO NOT KNOW, THEN YOU SHALL JOIN THEIR FATE."

Panic leapt to her throat, and Eilie started throwing daggers everywhere she thought the voice was hiding. Tears came unbidden to her eyes as she thought of dying, of Rina and Bolgan, and of the world and its calling. It wasn't fair. What was she supposed to know? It wasn't fair!

Rina. Bolgan. The world. 

Nanami. Guiltiness. Sadness. True sadness.

Riou.

__

I don't want to die! I want to---

And then everything went black.

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"It is...interesting, Mistress Leknaat. How does it fit into the whole picture, if I may ask?" Luc said, fingering the object with no small amount of dubiousness. 

Leknaat smiled and made a gesture with her hands. "Like this."

The master of the True Wind Rune stared. Yes, it's got some definite possibilities... "I see, Mistress."

The sorceress merely smiled.

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The wind felt warm. The grass tickled. Laughter. Voices. Familiarity. Touch. A shake. Warmth. Heat...wait a moment.

"FIRE!!" Eilie yelled as she got up, literally leaping away from the grass she'd been lying on with superhuman speed. Light smoke was rising up from the spot uncomfortably close to where her face was, and Eilie looked up at the culprit---Bolgan, grinning with all the youth he could muster. Eilie stared at him crossly.

"Did I ever tell you, Bolgan, never to do that?" she asked, making sure her voice was sharp and her question edged. She could see that her brother was trying very hard to keep his smile intact, satisfyingly so. Maybe she should try this big-sister-little-kid approach more often.

"Eilie overslept. Bolgan woke Eilie. Bolgan did right…right?" he said with puppy-dog eyes and it was her turn to try hard to keep herself from grinning back.

"No you didn't. Since when did waking someone up include torching their beds?" she replied. Realizing something, Eilie started to look around. They were in the courtyard, under Rina's favourite glade. There were several other people sleeping and otherwise yawning and stretching all around them. "Come to think of it, is it morning, Bolgan?"  
  
The hulking firebreather scratched his head before nodding happily. "Yes, Eilie. Morning, morning, big sunrise. Pretty." He grinned even wider. "Eilie forgive Bolgan? Uh-huh? Bolgan is sorry for lighting fire. Forgive?"  
  
This time she couldn't help smiling. "Yes, you're forgiven." Looking at her surroundings again, she couldn't help but mused "How come we are sleeping here, I wonder? I could've sworn..."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: First off, thank you for all the reviews! *cries* It means a lot, especially when your native lang is not English and you get C's for writings in your own language. You don't know how much support you've given me. ^_^ College sure is busy. I never would've thought so. That said, anybody think I went a bit overboard with Eilie? One thing I don't like in the game is that Eilie is always pictured as liking Riou but nothing is shown on _his_ side, even if her intentions are quite obvious. And she never reacted either. But maybe what I wrote is a bit too much. I worry again of going OOC…(it's a fetish of mine)

About the supernatural occurences in this chapter, they were supposed to enter the story much, much later originally. But then I notice that the pacing of this thing is slower than a snail's and decided to goose up some of the stuff. And in case you're wondering, Eilie's escapade wasn't a dream, and it doesn't really have much to do with Leknaat…yet.

I'm getting the hang of writing while in college, but the midterms come soon. Thusly, expect an update in two months or so, unless a magic writing-flow moment come unbidden one day. (Not very likely)


	4. A Hero's Return

**Chapter 4 : A Hero's Return**

The familiar walls and parapets of headquarters loomed over Riou like a griffin taking wings to the sky. Its stones stained with the blood of so many, as cold as death, yet the lichen-covered lime felt warm to his heart as memory played itself over and over. It would never really be home the way that little village deep in the mountains was, but the castle was a special place that Kyaro could never be, either. He had meant to ask Viktor about the place long before it was destroyed several times, but other people who'd know the man from the Toran Unification War advised it against it. Whatever North Window looked like only Viktor, the dead and the stones know, and none of them would ever answer his question. Thus it was. The ancient town was dead. In its place stood headquarters, set with the same stones but tempered with a new fire. Where what was started had truly begun.

_I'm back, _Riou thought, looking at the display of dappling shades against the cerulean sky.

The stones welcomed him, their unseen faces sculpted by time smiling at his return. That, or he really need a good long night's sleep. Riou took a confident, tentative step into the gateshead. He heard his footsteps coming up from the cobblestones, and wondered if the castle's inhabitants that he'd come to call friends and comrades would forgive him like the stones did. After all, the leader of the Jowston Alliance had disappeared with nary a word to anyone but the strategic staff. Riou wondered how it was to feel disappointed and betrayed. His commander might've been very different from he himself and their circumstances were as dissimiliar as can be...but he could easily draw some pararells between them. To the young soldiers in the Unicorn Brigade, Rowd was like a god. He was kind, though not terribly gentle. He was honest. He was reasonable to his subordinates. Rowd was everything an enthusiastic kid would ever hope to find in a commander. Yet Riou knew better than everyone else on how that episode ended. He could imagine that to the average, despairing Jowston people, a boy hero who suddenly rose up and started to fight back might have been the very leader they dreamed of. They probably did respected him and expected him to lead them into the future after the war ended. Needless to say, some might be very disappointed when he left office without words, though some might understand his reasons. Lord Tir McDohl of Gregminster definitely would be one. Riou didn't have a clue as to what those disappointed citizenry would think when he suddenly appear and say he had decided to take up on the offer to rule after all. Some would think less of him, for a certainty.

Something snapped under his feet with a _twang_. Alarmed, Riou looked up, his mind reeling back to the face of the assassin in the wild grass. And a pailful of cold, cold water covered his face.

"Uh oh," somebody gasped from the direction of the guardshouse. Though he was gagging and sputtering water, Riou knew who that somebody was. A certain winger was sure  to have some questions to answer later on. Dropping water on who could've been visiting dignitaries was NOT a good way to ensure continued sanity.

Later would wait for later, though.

Literally throwing his previous semi-calm out of the window, Riou raced through the gatehouse, past the guardsmen, past the second watchtower, past everything to the amazed stares of bystanders. Matters of state would have to wait. Weeks and weeks of traveling alone in mourning allowed him to be a bit more frank with himself. There was something, something he really wanted to know what it was that's been nagging at his mind for much of the journey. Riou felt that only by confronting it would he find his answers. And put his mind to rest before the burden of the country weighed down on him. Past the inner walls, past the terraces and to...

The courtyard, dancing with shadows casted by the trees' swaying leaves, was full of people like always. Perhaps even moreso, given the fact that trade was nothing if not prospering after the war, and merchants all over flocked to Han's store like it was a diamond mine. Riou found that faces familiar to him was lost in the newfound deluge, and he had to strain to find anybody he knew at all. Eventualy, though, he managed. The fact that the person wasn't actually a person but a barrel spoke much of his success. 

"Gadget, do you hear me?" Riou queried. He felt as anxious as a little kid.

The barrel remained silent.

"Gadget? Gadget! It's Riou, answer! This is serious!" he began to yell and shake the thing, earning queer looks from the passerbys.

Still, the barrel kept its stance. The boy began to think that perhaps it was a _real_ barrel, not Gadget, and he'd made a fool out of himself in front of half the castle. That was before an idea struck him that it was time to be less nice. Riou crossed his arms, tried to look as mean and no-nonsense as he could, and spoke. "If you don't answer me _now_, you stupid pile of wood, I'll tell Meg where you are. And where you will be afterwards. Make no mistake, Gadget. You can't really hide. I can assign a crack team of army spotters to look for you and if I don't get a response in a timely fashion, you can bet that I will." Riou stopped to catch his breath and waited for some kind of response.

This time he was rewarded with it. The barrel whirred for a moment and in a truly amazing display of gearworks and machinery, bloomed and refolded like flower petals. Riou watched in amazement as part after part seperated, joined with another one, snapped into place and finally collapsing into the familiar form of the wooden contraption with a mind of its own. The crowd's stare turned from being incredulous to simply enchanted as science, contrary to their beliefs, suddenly turned into magic. 

Disregarding the stares, Riou moved closer to the 'barrel' and noted that its mechanical eyes were full of apprehension. He smiled. "Hello, Gadget. Haven't seen you for sometime," he said casually. "You don't look so well."

_[Can you blame me?]_

The boy shrugged. "I suppose not. Sorry about that, by the way, but the I would be thoroughly shredded in the rumor mill if you remain an ordinary barrel."

_[I don't see this seriousness that prompted your previous functions, Riou.]_

"Well, you probably want to get back to res---er, hiding, don't you. Just tell me where I can find the gypsies then."

_[Gypsy?]___

"You know, the wandering performers. Eilie, Rina and Bolgan." Speaking the names somehow gave him a queasy feeling that he never had before.

The machine whirred again as if searching for some lost fragments within its maze of strings. _[Eilie.__ She left yesterday evening.]_

"Yester evening," Riou repeated, feeling half dazed as his mind began to catalogue the answer into coherence. Yesterday evening. Left. Gone. To somewhere he couldn't possibly know, taking the answer he sought with her, off again in her endless wanderings. Half of him understood immediately, but the other simply refused to understand, though the fact remained that he had to deal with it, somehow. He'd survive worse, far worse. Letting go, it seemed, would prove to be the most useful skill he'd ever learned in the last tumultuos years.

Thanking Gadget quietly as he collapsed back into his barrel form Riou continued to walk briskly, apparently at ease to all the people intent on watching him. His mind, however, was anything but at ease. There was the matter of Eilie, of course, and then there was his duty and the assassin. He would never, ever, ever mention the first to Shu or anyone for that matter, but the boy had no idea how the strategist would react to the news of the third, the father-brother-teacher figure that he was. He figured that depending on how things go, Shu could end up in either his furious or analytical modes, though neither of these particularly appealed to the to-be-leader of the new Dunan Republic.

And so Riou made his way through the familiar keep, greeting the familiar faces, smiling to familiar people and dodging bear hugs all around as he went up the floors to the strategists' quarters. It felt rather nice, the feeling of being back where one belonged.

Riou stopped dead in his tracks just when the thought crossed his head. _Where one belonged? When did I start thinking that?_

_Maybe things would be easier than I thought._

The spot that he was standing on, incidentally, was the front door of Klaus's room. And incidentally again, it was the exact time that the young man chose to slam the door open, carrying with him a bunch of papers with a certain bat tagging along behind. Riou went sprawling to the flagstones to the utter amazement of both man and bat.

Klaus's eyes opened, bulged. "Lord Riou!" he yelled, flinging the papers sideways as he rushed to his leader's side, checking for vital signs. Sierra, understanding the situation, swooped off to the infirmary.

----------------------------------------------------

In his dream, Riou saw a bird. Not just any run-of-the-mill bird, but a magnificent one. Its feathers were white as snow, it eyes were fire, and the creature was looking at him with understanding. Then it spread its wings and shattered away into a million pieces. He reached out to catch them, but the pieces dissolved away into searing rain, burning him like a thousand infernos, though there were no wounds. But soon the fire stopped, and through the blurry haze he could see the droplets forming into something, a shapeless thing that he couldn't identified. It shone so bright that he couldn't see.

And then Riou opened his eyes to Shu and the others sitting by his bed. 

"Good afternoon, my lord," the older man said coolly, though not without some wry amusement. "I trust you've had a good hero's return."

Somehow, despite all that's happened, Riou still couldn't help but smile at that. Dismissing the silly euphoria as quickly as it came, he proceeded to relate the events of his return to Shu, who listened to every word with a suddenly stern expression.

Including that incident with the water pail.


End file.
